Tips For Your Laptop Battery

6 Tips for Your Laptop Battery Life.

Six Tips to enhance you Your Laptop battery life.There was a time when Laptops were so expensive that only the the rich people could afford to own one.But today with the advancement of technology and reduced prices it has become cheaper and is affordable. Now a days you can buy a notebook for as low as Rs 18,000.Laptops are in fact outselling desktops and has become a must have for any executives or office goers and also students alike.But one of the perennial problem with Laptops is their Battery life- we all desire for a laptop with long battery backup of at least 3 to 4 hrs. don’t we ?
When ever we buy a Laptop we invariably look for or enquire about its battery backup capacity, on the cover the company might boldly advertize as battery backup up to three hours or more on optimum use.Now what is this optimum use ? I don’t think there is a easy explanation to that.
But here are some tips which can definitely help you to get the most of your Laptop battery, and let me tell you these  are proven tips, no gimmicks here.Sometime back I came across an article where it has been clearly said that Li-ion batteries (These are the batteries that we have in most of the Laptops) has a life time charging of 512 times only.Which means you can charge your battery to its full capacity 512 times only after which the battery capacity to retain power declines rapidly.So this also means that many of us tend to recharge the laptop battery if the battery level goes down to 50% to 60%, or just plug it on to the AC power source and use. This we must avoid at any cost if you want your battery to function at its peak, recharge only when its charge level goes bellow 20%.
Having said that here are some Tips for you to get the most out of your Laptop Battery. I bet you didn’t know ! Read on….

• 1) Maximize battery life:
  Do you know which component of your laptop consumes the most of your battery power? its you Laptop screen brightness.To ensure maximum run time of your Laptop battery,be sure is to dim your display whenever possible.Brightness of 40% to 50% is sufficient for any office work when your laptop is not connected to a power source.
  Disable services such as Bluetooth and WI-Fi network connection, when you don’t need these services, this simple precaution will save you valuable battery power.If these services are kept on, your Laptop constantly searches for any signals (Bluetooth or WI-fi) within its range there by draining your battery in the process. Disconnect all your external USB drives (Thumb drives or external disk) if you are not transferring files, as these units also consumes power.
• 2) Never charge your Laptop’s battery constantly:
  Never keep your Laptop plugged to an AC outlet constantly, A battery constantly connected to an AC out let at full charge will degrade at a faster rate.If you connect your laptop battery to an AC outlet  frequently the batteries capacity to hold charge will reduce quicker than normal.It is always advisable to plug your laptop battery for charging when the charge drains below 15% to 20%. One most important thing is never to unplug the laptop battery while it is in the middle of its charging cycle.Another important thing to remember is never allow the battery to drain completely as it stresses the Li-ion battery and can even damage it.
• 3) Don’t remove your Laptops battery when its plugged in to a power source:
  I have seen many laptop users do this- they first charge their battery to the max and than unplug the battery (taking out) and continue working on their Laptop connected to AC mains.This they do just to keep their battery fully charged so they can use their laptop whenever they have to move away from the power source.Never ever do that,for if there is any, even the slightest power fluctuations, technically called as Spikes, your Laptop will behave erratically,shutdown or worse, some vital component may get fried.You can remove your battery only when your laptop is overheating >60 C,and connected to a AC source. Make it a habit to allow your battery to charge and discharge periodically, but never discharge completely
• 4) Store your Battery in a cool place:
  If for some reason you don’t intend to use you laptop for more than two weeks or if you have a extra battery that wont be used for a long time, make sure to discharge your battery down to 50% charge before unplugging it from Laptop and store in a cool place. Why ? because heat causes battery to degrade at a faster rate.Also make sure that you don’t block the laptops heat vents when working on it from your lap or placing the laptop on a bad or sofa. For some reasons laptops heat vents are located on the underside so take care not to block it.
• 5)Charging and Discharging Laptops battery:
  Almost all modern Laptops come with Lithium Ion batteries, free of memory effect, so its not necessary to do full charge and discharge cycle on these batteries on a daily basis unlike other battery types eg.Ni Cad and NiMH.But its a good idea to do a full discharge and recharge cycle at least once in every 40 to 50 charge cycles, this will help keep your batteries fuel gauge accurate.
• 6) When to replace your Laptop battery:
  Any electronic gadget that runs on battery,its battery is probably the most susceptible component to degrade due to constant usage and aging.In Laptop the batteries charge holding capacity gradually reduces with the number of charge / discharge cycles (as mentioned above)this degradation directly impacts on your laptops standby time, as it will become lesser and lesser.
  Since laptop usage pattern differs from person to person, life span of the battery also depends on the usage pattern.A brand new Laptop battery will function optimally (with precautions) for up to a year, after which it can only go downhill.If your laptop standby time drastically reduces or fail to hold full charge , it will be a good idea to replace your battery, when buying a new battery always check the original battery and buy the exact specification for your Laptop.Was this post helpful? Got any question ? you can write in the comment box .Visit this blog for more tips or better still subscribe to my Feeds for free(above) for future posts updates.